As disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2007-111358, in an endoscopic system, an endoscopic video processor (hereinafter referred to as a processor) that performs, for example, processing on an endoscope image is connected to another device through a network and performs specified processing according to a command issued by the another device. The processor and other devices such as a peripheral device perform transmission and reception of a command between them using a specified protocol.
As disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 11-4238, not only in an endoscopic system but also in a commonly used communication system in which a plurality of devices are connected to one another through a network, a device that has received data determines the destination of the data using information added to the data. When the data is to be destined for the device itself, the device retrieves the data, and when the data is to be destined for another device, the device performs a transfer of the data.
In general, endoscopic video processors have a life cycle longer than peripheral devices, and the time period from the release of a certain model of an endoscopic video processor to the release of its successor model is long. On the other hand, peripheral devices have a relatively shorter life cycle. Thus, when a higher-performance successor model of a peripheral device is released, it is relatively often the case that the successor model is connected to an endoscopic video processor instead of its existing model.
However, a newly released peripheral device may use a communication protocol different from that of its existing model.